111. No bad karma with regard to the body

It was only then that I understood what Luang Pu had meant when he said that he had no bad karma with regard to the body.

For even though he had reached his 96th year, his body was strong, spry, clean, and calm. Always fully mindful and alert, he suffered no senility or forgetful lapses at all.

When the time came for him to die, he died quietly with no signs of pain or difficulty. He caused no trouble, mental or physical, for those who were looking after him: no waste of doctors, no waste of medicine, no waste of anyone’s time.

In the midst of the stillness near dawn, free of the noise of people or traffic—even the leaves of the trees were still, the air was cool, with a gentle drizzle falling like snow—Luang Pu, a member of the pure, noble Saṅgha, dropped his body, leaving us with only his virtues to remember and miss in a way that will know no end.